The law of maximum was now passed, however, and a cumulative income tax, so that, as Carlyle remarks, the workman was at least better off under the Terror than he had ever been before.
Robespierre, Danton, and the Hebertists were now what of force was left in the Convention, and the first of these was not slow to make up his mind to get the reins of power into his own hands. Meantime, an attempt was made to institute a new worship founded on Materialism; but, like all such artificial attempts to establish what is naturally 153 the long growth of time, it failed. Chaumette, Hebert, and their followers were the leaders in this business, which Robespierre disapproved of, and Danton growled at.
The Extraordinary Tribunal under Fouquier Tinville, the agent of the Terror, speedily got rid of all obstacles to the Revolution, and of many of the foremost rank of its supporters. Robespierre became at last practical dictator, partly owing to his adroit steering between the parties, and his industry and careful painstaking, and partly to his reputation for incorruptibility and republican asceticism.
The Hebertists, who were so called from Hebert, their leader, and who represented the proletarian instinct or germ of Socialism, under the name of the “Enragés” (rabids), were accused at Robespierre’s instance, found guilty and executed. Danton, giving way it would seem to some impulse towards laziness inherent in his nature, let himself be crushed, and died along with Camille Desmoulins on 31st March 1794, and at last Robespierre was both in reality and appearance 156 supreme. On the 8th June he inaugurated his new worship by his feast of the Supreme Being, and two days later got a law passed (the law Prairial) which enabled him to condemn any one to the guillotine at pleasure; and at this ominous grumblings began to be heard. According to a story current, Carnot got by accident at a list of forty to be arrested, among whom he read his own name.